{new} sweet lunch punch

You can purchase the Sweet Lunch Punch or any of the 4 other Lunch Punch Sets for both girls and boys here!

{construction party} activites and favors

I'll admit, I used to be a big "buy lots of little things and put it in a bag" party favor kind of girl.  As Madelyn has gotten older, I have definitely gone away from that thinking.  Don't get me wrong.  I don't think there is anything wrong with it.  I am just not a "stuff" girl.  I try to give one or two things to the kids and often will make it be a craft or something they have made.  The boys are too young (and totally not interested) to do any sort of craft/favor project, but it was still a pretty easy decision. 

I ordered the Construction Hats off of Amazon, but I know you can get them at various places.  I printed labels with the kids names and placed them on the front of each hat.  I always personalize when I can.  The hats then were used as part of the decorations up on the deck.  Again, making them work double duty!  I also had the boys were their hats when we sang Happy Birthday and we took a group shot with all the kids and their hats.  I also went to Home Depot and picked up a bunch of Nail Aprons for $.77 each.  Seriously the kids were thrilled and I didn't spend a lot.  Win, Win!  The kids each took home a set of Old Dirt Road Pops as well.

As for activities, well I knew the pool would be enough.  I did want to atleast have one game, so again I went to the playroom and collected a bunch of the boys tools.  I took a photo of each tool I collected and made four different scavenger hunt sheets.

 Then I broke the kids up into four groups, making sure to place an older cousin with each group.  The kids had to go around the back yard and find the hidden tools that was on their scavenger hunt sheet only.  We hid the tools earlier in the day while the boys were "napping".  This game was a HUGE hit!  It took longer than expected, which was totally fine.  I hate when you plan out a game and it ends up only taking 2 minutes!  When everything was found, the boys wanted to play again, so I had their older cousins rehide them.  I even kept the sheets and laminated them so we can play in the house. 

It was a great day and the kids had so much fun!

{diy} marshmellow pops

When I was making a list of food to have at our Construction Party, Marshmellow Pops

were at the top of my list.  Super cute + Easy = Just right for me!

I found a great tutorial from Savory Sweet Life and went with it.  I found that many people used nuts as toppings for their pops, but with Madelyn being allergic, I chose to go with Butterscotch Sprinkles so they would have the same look.

I pretty much followed the tutorial to a tee, except for placing the pops in a styrofoam block to set.  I missed that part, so I went through all of our baking sheets and put together something that worked for me.  One tip would be to hold the marshmellow as you dip it in chocolate, not just the stick.  I found I had more control that way.  Also, I used a very small spatula to get the excess chocolate off the top of the marshmellow.  The spatula also helped to even out the chocolate.

After I was done, I let them set for couple hours and then bagged 3 at a time and finished them up with orange polka dotted ribbon.  These were part of the party favors, so of course we had to come up with a fun way to display them.  I am all about using what you have to decorate.  So I quickly grabbed one of the boys toolboxes (and had the "noone is going to take this home with them" talk) and started filling it up.  I was definitely pleased how it all turned out!